Abstract
A classical problem of calculating the electromagnetic emission produced by a charge (or a group of charges) moving in the vacuum is formulated in terms of computing the Poynting vector flux through a closed infinitely distant surface surrounding the radiation source (Melrose 1980;Rybicki and Lightman 1986; Ginzburg 1987;Nagirner 2007b). In contrast, computing the emission from a plasma, which is an anisotropic, dispersive, and absorbing matter, is distinctly different from the classical vacuum problem. In particular, unlike the vacuum case, the polarization vectors of the eigenmodes are not arbitrary any longer, while set up by the plasma dispersion (see Chap.3). Then, the concept of the nonzero energy flux through an infinitely distant surface can only work in case of truly nonabsorbing matter, which is strictly speaking not the case for real media including astrophysical plasmas.
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Notes
- 1.
Note that the adopted constancy of the particle velocity implies that the particle moves in the given field infinitely long so the entire radiated energy is proportionally infinite.
- 2.
Formally, the perturbation theory is applicable at high frequencies, where the radiation intensity is exponentially small; see below. But it is not helpful even there since, within the perturbation theory, the exponentially small emission is undistinguishable from zero emission level.
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Fleishman, G.D., Toptygin, I.N. (2013). Emission Processes. In: Cosmic Electrodynamics. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 388. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5782-4_9
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